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Mount Hor (
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: , ''Hōr hāHār'') is the name given in the
Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.
Hebrew: ''Tān ...
to two distinct mountains. One borders the land of
Edom Edom (; Edomite: ; he, אֱדוֹם , lit.: "red"; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom in Transjordan, located between Moab to the northeast, the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian Desert to the south and eas ...
in the area south of the
Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...
, and the other is by the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
at the Northern border of the Land of Israel. The first Mount Hor is especially significant to the
Israelites The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...
, as
Aaron According to Abrahamic religions, Aaron ''′aharon'', ar, هارون, Hārūn, Greek ( Septuagint): Ἀαρών; often called Aaron the priest ()., group="note" ( or ; ''’Ahărōn'') was a prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother ...
the high priest, brother of Moses, died there.


Mount Hor in Edom

This Mount Hor is situated "in the edge of the land of
Edom Edom (; Edomite: ; he, אֱדוֹם , lit.: "red"; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom in Transjordan, located between Moab to the northeast, the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian Desert to the south and eas ...
" (
Numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers ca ...
) and was the scene of
Aaron According to Abrahamic religions, Aaron ''′aharon'', ar, هارون, Hārūn, Greek ( Septuagint): Ἀαρών; often called Aaron the priest ()., group="note" ( or ; ''’Ahărōn'') was a prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother ...
's
divestiture In finance and economics, divestment or divestiture is the reduction of some kind of asset for financial, ethical, or political objectives or sale of an existing business by a firm. A divestment is the opposite of an investment. Divestiture is ...
, death and burial. The exact location of Mount Hor has been the subject of debate.


Jebel Harun

Based on the writing of
Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...
, it has customarily been identified with the ''Jebel Nebi Harun'' ("Mountain of the Prophet Aaron" in Arabic) or simply ''Jebel Harun'', a twin-peaked mountain 4780 feet above sea-level in the Edomite Mountains on the east side of the
Arabah The Arabah, Araba or Aravah ( he, הָעֲרָבָה, ''hāʿĂrāḇā''; ar, وادي عربة, ''Wādī ʿAraba''; lit. "desolate and dry area") is a loosely defined geographic area south of the Dead Sea basin, which forms part of the borde ...
section of the
Jordan Rift Valley The Jordan Rift Valley, also Jordan Valley ''Bīrʿāt haYardēn'', ar, الغور Al-Ghor or Al-Ghawr),, date=November 2022 also called the Syro-African Depression, is an elongated depression located in modern-day Israel, and Jordan. This ...
. On the summit is a mosque from the
Mamluk period The Mamluk Sultanate ( ar, سلطنة المماليك, translit=Salṭanat al-Mamālīk), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz (western Arabia) from the mid-13th to early 16th ...
, traditionally marking the so-called "
Tomb of Aaron The Tomb of Aaron is the name of the supposed burial place of Aaron, the brother of Moses, according to Jewish, Christian, and local Muslim tradition. There are two different places named in the Torah as Aaron's place of death and burial, Mo ...
" and built over the remains of a Byzantine church,Chapter 5.2 "The Shrine", pp.36-38 for the mosque. and in the saddle west of it are the remains of a
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...
Monastery of Aaron.


Jebel Madara

Some investigators from the mid-19th until the beginning of the 20th century dissented from this identification: for example, Henry Clay Trumbull preferred the ''Jebel Madara'', a peak about 15 miles northwest of 'Ain Kadis (possibly
Kadesh Barnea Kadesh or Qadesh or Cades (in classical Hebrew he, קָדֵשׁ, from the root "holy") is a place-name that occurs several times in the Hebrew Bible, describing a site or sites located south of, or at the southern border of, Canaan and the Kin ...
), near the modern border between Israel and Egypt. Among others who favor this location are Wilton (''The Negeb'', 1863, pp. 127 ff.), :de:Frants Buhl (''Die Geschichte der Edomiter'', 1893, p. 23), G.B Gray (''A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers'',
270
and Bruno J. L. Baentsch (''Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers''
900–03 in German as ''Exodus – Leviticus – Numeri'' 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...
p. 572.)


Other sites

Mount Uhud Mount Uhud ( ar, جَبَل أُحُد, Jabal Uḥud) is a mountain north of Medina, Saudi Arabia. It is high and 7.5 km long. It was the site of the second battle between Muslim and unbelievers. The Battle of Uhud was fought on 19 March, 625 ...
north of
Medina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the second-holiest city in Islam, and the capital of the ...
has a shrine similar to the mosque on top of Jebel Harun that is connected by tradition to the life of Aaron.Miettunen (2004), 5.1 History of Jabal Hārūn, and other sites connected to Hārūn, p. 36. Another site is in the Sinai, where some 2 km northwest from Saint Catherine's Monastery both Muslim and Christian shrines stand at the top of a hill. Tradition places there the site of the
golden calf According to the Bible, the golden calf (עֵגֶל הַזָּהָב '' ‘ēgel hazzāhāv'') was an idol (a cult image) made by the Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai. In Hebrew, the incident is known as ''ḥēṭə’ hā‘ēgel' ...
. The Muslim ''maqam'' marks the place where prophet Harun stood, with his footprint preserved nearby. Muslims from the area used to perform an annual '' ziyara'', a procession to the monastery accompanied by sacrificing of camels, which took place until the
Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...
.


Northern Mount Hor

Another Mount Hor is mentioned in the
Book of Numbers The book of Numbers (from Greek Ἀριθμοί, ''Arithmoi''; he, בְּמִדְבַּר, ''Bəmīḏbar'', "In the desert f) is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and com ...
(). defining the northern boundary of the Land of Israel. It is traditionally identified as the Nur or Amanus Mountains. In the Second Temple period, Jewish authors seeking to establish with greater precision the geographical definition of the
Promised Land The Promised Land ( he, הארץ המובטחת, translit.: ''ha'aretz hamuvtakhat''; ar, أرض الميعاد, translit.: ''ard al-mi'ad; also known as "The Land of Milk and Honey"'') is the land which, according to the Tanakh (the Hebrew B ...
, began to construe Mount Hor as a reference to the Amanus range of the Taurus Mountains, which marked the northern limit of the Syrian plain.
Rabbinic writings Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writ ...
also declare Amanah a boundary of the land of Israel, saying "What constitutes the Land
f Israel F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. His ...
and what constitutes he placesoutside the Land
f Israel F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. His ...
All that which inclines itself and drops down recipitouslyfrom ''Turos Amanus'' and inward (i.e. towards its south) is the Land of Israel. From ''Turos Amanus'' and outward (i.e. towards its north) are lacesoutside the Land
f Israel F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. His ...
" Mount Hor is also called Amanah, and is known as Mount Manus in the Jerusalem Targums, and Umanis in Targum Jonathan. Historical geographer, Joseph Schwarz (1804–1865), sought to establish the bounds of the Amanah mountain range described in rabbinic literature, adding that it is to be identified with Mount Hor, "the northern terminus of
Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...
", and which, according to him, "extends south of
Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in t ...
as the promontory of ''Mount Hor'' (), called in the period of the Grecian domination ''Theuprosopon'', and now ''Ras al-Shaka'', as far as the Mediterranean, and thence it runs a distance of 12 English miles to the south of
Tyre Tyre most often refers to: * Tire, the outer part of a wheel * Tyre, Lebanon, a Mediterranean city Tyre or Tyres may also refer to: Other places Lebanon * Tyre District * See of Tyre, a Christian diocese *Tyre Hippodrome, a UNESCO World Heritag ...
, to the '' Ras al Nakhara'', where its rocky cliffs, which are visible at a great distance, extend into the sea." (reprint of A. Hart: Philadelphia 1850) By this description, Amanah is the southernmost
Anti-Lebanon Mountains The Anti-Lebanon Mountains ( ar, جبال لبنان الشرقية, Jibāl Lubnān ash-Sharqiyyah, Eastern Mountains of Lebanon; Lebanese Arabic: , , "Eastern Mountains") are a southwest–northeast-trending mountain range that forms most of th ...
, equatable with
Mount Hermon Mount Hermon ( ar, جبل الشيخ or جبل حرمون / ALA-LC: ''Jabal al-Shaykh'' ("Mountain of the Sheikh") or ''Jabal Haramun''; he, הַר חֶרְמוֹן, ''Har Hermon'') is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of th ...
, and is not to be confused with
Mount Amanus The Nur Mountains ( tr, Nur Dağları, "Mountains of Holy Light"), formerly known as Alma-Dağ, the ancient Amanus ( grc, Ἁμανός), medieval Black Mountain, or Jabal al-Lukkam in Arabic, is a mountain range in the Hatay Province of south ...
in southern Turkey.


See also

*
Mount Amana Mount Amana (, a-mā'na, a-mä'na, uh-may'nuh) is an ancient name for the southern Anti-Lebanon Mountains. Geography Mount Amana is at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, near the source of the river Abana. Paul Haupt identifies this ...
*
Tomb of Aaron The Tomb of Aaron is the name of the supposed burial place of Aaron, the brother of Moses, according to Jewish, Christian, and local Muslim tradition. There are two different places named in the Torah as Aaron's place of death and burial, Mo ...


References


External links

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